Category Archives: Life’s Lessons

Today at church, I was asked to share a story in primary about PRAYER. I knew the toughest part about fulfilling this request would be to do – it – without – crying! Prayer has helped me through some pretty tough stuff in my life. It has been a means of comfort, inspiration and daily guidance. Several prayer stories raced through my head making it somewhat difficult to choose just one. The story I chose to share with those adorable 7-11 year olds was a story that took place last summer…..

My youngest daughter Myley, went on a three week LDS youth church historical tour called “Heritage Tours” They traveled through 26 states in 21 days. To document their experience, the one-hundred 18 year olds were asked to bring an actual hands-on camera, no cell phones were allowed. About half way through the tour, I got a frantic emergency phone call from Myley saying she had left her camera at their last stop…a truck stop…one state over from where she now was. She gave me the name and location of the truck stop where she last used it. I told her to pray that someone with integrity would find it. She said she already had. (thats music to a mother’s ears) The first thing I did was pray that somehow the camera would find it’s way back to Myley. Next I “googled” the truck-stop and called the number listed. A lady answered, I explained our dilemma, she put me on hold as she went to check the restroom, the adjourning fast food joint, and the lost-n-found. No luck. I thanked her and left my name and number just in case someone turned it in. For several days I continued to pray for the return of the camera and made several calls to the truck stop.

Three weeks later, a package addressed to Myley, was delivered. You guessed it! It was the camera along with a letter from the lady who found it. She said she found the camera in the restroom and could tell from the pictures that these were teens traveling across the nation on some kind of tour. She searched the truck stop looking for the girl in all the pictures. She said she thought about turning it in, but decided against it, not knowing if they would be honest and see that it got back to the rightful owner. She then took the quest upon herself. She searched the pictures one-by-one hoping for a clue of its owner…. then whaa-laaa…. she FOUND a clue!

While in Palmyra, New York at the Sacred Grove, Myley had taken a picture of her scriptures lying next to a special written blessing she had received. The lady was able to zoom in enough on that picture to see Myley’s name, her parents names and state in which she lived. She used those clues to begin her search. For the next two weeks she was very diligent in searching facebook and calling all the Mackintosh’s listed in the whitepages until she finally found someone who still used a “home phone” …..an uncle who gave her my husband’s cell …..then she made the call. My husband was elated at the news and knew Myley would be ecstatic. He asked if we could send her a reward…. she said, No, that she had had so much fun playing detective the past two weeks that her reward was being able to return it to the rightful owner. How cool is that!

It’s a great feeling knowing there are good people in this world who are honest and desire to do the right thing under any circumstance.

The letter also told Myley to look at the LAST picture on the camera …..Thank YOU Carol! And Thank you Heavenly Father who heard and answered the prayers of a teen and her mother.

For as long as I can remember I dreamt of marrying the man of my dreams and raising a large family. I was the youngest of five children and I always felt I got ripped off because I didn’t have younger siblings, therefore I grew up with the desire to have TEN kids so the “me” in the family would have older AND younger siblings. When I gave birth to child number 7, I told my husband it felt like TEN so I was counting it! That was kind of tongue-n-cheek, but seriously, my family felt complete when Skye, was born. My husband said it best “Skye’s the limit.” Yep, I was living the dream….great husband, a stay-at-home-mom raising a large family.

My dream of raising “perfect” children was also a dream come true!….my children are perfectly normal, perfectly challenged, perfectly unique, perfectly independent, perfectly stubborn and perfectly mine AND I love them more than life itself. They are the reason I color my hair, fight winkles, don’t get enough sleep……and “most” days I wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world. Hit me up on a “mom you don’t understand, I hate you” teenage-rage-kind-of-day and I’ll negotiate a child or two with you.

hmmm…my daughter just called ….flat tire….gotta go rescue her! Of course these things only happen when my husband is out-of-town, but it’s one of those DOable challenges.

I love my family that has grown to four in-laws and one grandson. I am thankful for the many challenges and trials that keep us on our toes….we are a better family because of the bumps in the road. God seems to know just what we need to get us out of our comfort zone and to learn what WE didn’t think we needed to learn. I take a deep breath because I know just-around-the-corner is another challenge to strengthen our ability to understand, forgive, show compassion, empathy and patience.

The lesson at the end of the day is always the same….LOVE UNCONDITIONALLY. That part is a piece of cake…..Easy. Done.

Like this:

Today on my facebook status I posted the quote; “None of us come to earth to gain our worth; we brought it with us.” ~Sheri Dew. Immediately I started getting “likes” and comments and several reposts. I thought “Wow, this really resonates with a lot of people. hmmm….why?”

The world tends to make us think we have to look a certain way, weigh a certain amount, act a certain way or have a certain title to “gain our worth.” The simple thought that “we brought it (our worth) with us” is powerful. We don’t have to “gain” it, it is already within us. Embrace it! We are a gift from God….literally created by a Heavenly Father and Mother. That means you and I are of Royal heritage! We ARE Great, Grand and Wonderful, destined to be a King or Queen! You may believe something totally different and that’s okay, because your beliefs mold who you are and I love that about YOU.

I came across this short video clip that fits what I am trying to say…..

Have you read the book Aspire; Discovering Your Purpose Through the Power Of Words, by Kevin Hall? It’s a MUST read. It was life changing book for me. Chapter one divulges a word I had never heard before, Kevin calls it the “Secret Word” which upon hearing it became my new favorite word! What’s the word? Hold on, I will tell you in a minute!

Each chapter focuses on a new word and Kevin shares stories of inspiring men and women who exemplify that word. One of my favorite stories was about Dr. Viktor Frankl, a man who “survived the horrors and inhumanity of the Nazi concentration camps as prisoner Number 119,104.” Viktor wrote a book in nine days following his ordeal, entitled “Man’s Search for Meaning.” In his book he writes: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms-to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” Viktor chose to be a VICTOR not a Victim!

I was inspired by Viktor to be more conscious of “My Attitude” – how I react in any given situation.

Okay, now to my new FAVORITE word, the Word that has made me more conscience of the words I use and how I treat others is…………drum roll…………. “GENSHAI” which means “Never treat another person in a manner that would make them feel small……and that includes YOURSELF!” Why did this hit me so hard? I had heard it my whole life, just worded differently. My mother drilled “Do unto others as you want them to do unto you” “Love one another” “Be kind to everyone” but for some reason “in a manner that would make them FEEL small” sunk deep.

I posted the word Genshai and its meaning on a sticky note on my bathroom mirror. It’s a reminder to choose my words wisely. Being kind to strangers and friends is comes naturally, but for some reason I can get inpatient with those I love the most…my family. How could that be possible? ….too often having a clean house, tidy bedrooms, over shadows the fact that my kids are doing good things…..they aren’t out doing drugs and alcohol or sleeping around. How did “pick up after yourself” become more important than “I walked away from a potentially bad situation today”?

Back in the day when I had five teens living at home at the same time, I could get a little crazy trying to keep some kind of order in my home. I was constantly nagging someone to clean their room, clean their bathroom, get out of bed, get their chores done, etc… Mornings were the worst. My boys did high school sports and were usually up and gone to practice before the girls were even awake. That left THREE teenage, tired, moody girls fighting over the bathroom and who was wearing what of theirs without asking was a normal occurrence. The good thing is that usually by the time they came home from school they were best friends. If I were to go back and do it all again, I would have closed their bedroom doors more often so that I couldn’t see their mess….ignored the over flowing garbage can in their bathroom AND would have hugged and praised them more for the Good things they were doing and the bad things they were NOT doing.

Okay I’ve gotten a little side tracked. Here’s a couple of examples of how taking to heart the word Genshai helped me become a more patient mom: My youngest boy Skye is usually an early riser during the school year….he jumps out of bed and goes through the morning routine before catching the bus for school without any nagging or “coaching” (that’s a nicer sounding word) from me. One morning he was just not getting out of bed. I knew he had gotten to bed late and was now paying the price. THE OLD ME would have said, “GET OUT OF BED! I’m sorry you chose to go to bed late. NOW GET UP! If you MISS the bus you will have to WALK to school!” Those were words that came out of my mouth on occasion when I had the 4-5 teens living at home….and several times they WALKED the two miles to school…one time on cold snowy winter. Lesson learned, but “Bad Mom Award”. But on this morning, the word Genshai was at the forefront and I said, “Skye, would you like to sleep longer and I will drive you to school?” He sat up a bit and looked at me strangely then thanked me and laid back down. To him those words meant he could sleep another half hour….and thats a big deal to a teen. As I walked away from his room I felt REALLY good, unlike the raunchy grouchy feeling I would feel after I yelled at my child and punished them for something so trivial.

Another morning I opened Skye’s door and said “Get up Skye, Today is going to be the BEST day of your Life and YOU don’t want to miss a single second of it” He sat up, again looked at me funny, and said “Why?” I answered,” Because YOU are going to be a part of it! You are going to walk down the halls and smile at people you have never smiled at before….you are going to say “Hi” to people you have never said hi to before and YOU are going to make them feel good about themselves and in return you will feel better about yourself. AND when you crawl back into bed tonight you are going to say “Today was a Great Day!” He just smiled and had the look of “you are weird mom” on his face. A half hour later as I was driving my daughter Myley to school…wait…DRIVING?….Yes, because she attends a HS that is not in our boundaries, therefore no bus to ride:( As I was pulling up to the front of the school I said, “Myley today is going to be the BEST day of your life!” She turned to me and said, “I know! I heard you telling Skye this morning” We laughed as she got out of the car and I said “enJOY the Best day of your life!” YEP! it was a lot nicer feeling parting ways that morning! Lesson Learned…..Be NICE! “Good Mom Award”

Is my life all a bed of roses now that I have digested the MEANING of the word GENSHAI?….NO, LIFE HAPPENS and I still have to make a conscious decision of how I will respond……it’s up to ME and no one else….I choose my attitude! I’m really making an effort to NEVER make another person feel SMALL, and that decision has made me a HaPpIeR person!